planqc

What they do

planqc builds quantum computers that use individual neutral atoms as qubits. The atoms are held in place by laser light in arrangements the company describes as artificial crystals of light, and they are manipulated with precisely timed laser pulses. planqc develops the hardware and software stack in-house and designs its machines to be installed inside high-performance computing centres, where they can work alongside classical supercomputers.

Why it matters

Neutral atoms have emerged as one of the most promising routes to large quantum computers, because atoms are identical by nature and can be arranged in large arrays. planqc is Europe's leading company in this approach, and it has won some of the continent's most important public quantum contracts. The German Aerospace Center selected it to build a 1,000-qubit machine, and it leads a project to install a quantum system at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre in Garching, where the first hardware of its MAQCS system arrived in September 2026.

The focus on integration with supercomputers is a pragmatic one. Early quantum machines are most useful as accelerators for specific problems in simulation, materials and optimisation, and planqc has partnered with ESA, Airbus, Fraunhofer institutes and the Technical University of Munich to explore such applications.

Products to know

• MAQCS: the Multicore Atomic Quantum Computing System, its neutral-atom quantum computer.
• Full-stack quantum platform: hardware, control systems and software built together for HPC integration.

The German angle

Alexander Glätzle, Sebastian Blatt and Johannes Zeiher founded planqc in 2022 as a spin-out of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, and it was the first start-up to emerge from the Munich Quantum Valley initiative. Its headquarters, opened in Garching in 2024, sits on the same research campus as the Max Planck institutes, the Technical University of Munich and the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre. That proximity is the point: planqc is a showcase for Bavaria's effort to turn world-class quantum physics into a domestic industry, and it won the Deutscher Gründerpreis in 2025 and a Made in Europe Award in 2026.